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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 2021)
Page 8 The Skanner Portland & Seattle January 13, 2021 Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Walker cont’d from pg 7 munity, Elisha encour- aged the community to keep faith in their nation. Horizon of hope Elisha’s example pow- ered Walker’s message. At Princeton, Walker en- couraged the black sem- inarians not to counte- nance a nostalgia for the past. In moments of deep discouragement, Walker said, distressed people tend to retreat into a ro- manticized past. “In the jargon of the street,” Walker said, “it sounds like this: ‘Child, don’t you wish it was like it was back in the good old days… .” “And yet,” he declared, “not by any wishing or hoping or praying or anything else can we find any day when things were better. There was no such day!” Walker proceeded to caution his audience against maintaining the status quo. Walker proclaimed, “Whatever dream of life it is we en- vision for our children, ourselves, our commu- nity, our church, we will never bring it to our fin- gertips unless it begins first with some initial risk.” For Walker, challeng- ing the status quo was a Civil rights and Union leaders sing ‘We Shall Overcome’ at the conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march on March 25, 1965 in Montgomery, Alabama. Stephen F. Somerstein/Getty Images fundamental aspect of existence. “The elemental char- acter of life is one that is the status quo, Walker offered the seminarians at Princeton a new vision of a political community. Wyatt Tee Walker in Montgomery, Alabama on April 3, 1962. Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images moving and dynamic,” he said. Walker closed his ser- mon by urging the audi- ence to embrace hope- filled struggle. But he did not deny the desperate reality. Instead, in the face of despair, he urged the young seminarians to take a risk of faith and build a future that has not been. For Walker, that meant “doing, try- ing, moving toward things which have never been tried before.” Hope in democracy The lasting testament of black public faith is its affirmation of new possi- bilities during moments of deep doubt. Rather than relying on a myth of the past or upholding “What I’m saying to you,” Walker declared, “is that I have the ulti- mate faith that we are going to find a tranquil- ity with justice in this nation, in this world. We must! And it is conceiv- able it could happen in our time.” Many Americans are angry with the state of the political system. And acts of racial bigotry and religious intolerance have become far too or- dinary. In such times, Wyatt Tee Walker’s words can remind people to muster hope and keep faith with the possibilities of Amer- ican democracy while continuing the struggle for a just society.
